Method and system for the tracking and profiling of supply usage in a health care environment

ABSTRACT

A method for tracking medical supply usage on a procedure level in a clinical setting. The method includes the steps of creating at least one procedural template comprising a list of anticipated supplies to be used during a given medical procedure, creating a recordation form from a given procedure based upon the procedural template, the form including at least a partial listing of the anticipated supplies to be used during the procedure based upon the procedural template, recording on the form actual usage of supplies during the procedure, and storing the procedural template and actual usage information in a retrievable manner for the purposes of analysis.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to the field of tracking supply usage in the health care field and, in particular for a computer implementable method and system for tracking and profiling supply usage at the procedural level in the health care field.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In the provision of medical services, one way of describing the process by which medical services are provided is through the concept of a clinical pathway. Any given treatment regime or clinical procedure, may be easily described as a related series of care events. Each care event has a some relation to the preceding and/or following care events that is logical and reasonable. For example, suppose that a patient was going to the hospital to have knee surgery. The process, from start to finish could be described as a series of care events: 1) admission, 2) initial bloodwork, 3) preoperative prep, 4) anesthesia, 5) surgery, 6) postoperative recovery, 7) discharge. In fact, the previous example could continue outside the hospital with additional steps: 8) follow-up doctor's office visits, 9) rehabilitation/physical therapy, etc. To a person familiar with the medical environment, it will be apparent that each of the care events could be broken down into a more detailed series of sub-care events, thus, the concept of the clinical pathway is scaleable; that is, any given care event may be made of a series of activities and can therefore be described as a clinical pathway.

The concept of the clinical pathway may also be expanded to more involved procedures. For example, a patient might go to her doctor complaining of particular symptoms. The doctor might then make and examination, or order tests. Based upon the result of the examination and/or tests, the doctor would make a diagnosis and prescribe a treatment regime. Assume that the treatment regime included a surgical procedure to be performed in a hospital, as well as follow-up care. In this case, the clinical pathway might look like: 1) patient induction (basic administration getting the patient into the doctor's system); 2) examination; 3) testing; 4) diagnosis; 5) prescription of treatment; 6) admission to the hospital; 7) pre-surgical testing; 8) pre-operative preparation; 9) anesthesia; 10) surgery; 11) post-operative recovery; 12) discharge from hospital; 13) follow-up treatment; 14) final discharge. Once again, it is obvious that each care event in the given example might be further broken down into smaller incremental care events and, thus, represent a clinical pathway of its own. For example, the surgery could be broken down into each step associated with the surgery from the initial incision until the incision is closed.

In addition to the fact that each care event represents the provision of some type of medical (or administrative) service, each care event will also require the allocation of some type of resources in order to be performed. These resources may be in the form of labor (doctor, nurse, technician, data clerk, etc.), equipment (x-ray machine, respirator, vital signs monitors, etc.), or supplies (sponges, surgical instruments, drapes, x-ray film, sutures, medications, etc.). Thus, for each care event it is possible to identify the allocation of resources necessary for completion of the care event. For example, for the examination step described in the second example, the allocation of resources could be: 15 minutes of doctor's time, use of a specimen collector, use of a specimen container, and the use of a blood collection kit. Likewise, the testing step might include the use of an imaging device (such as an x-ray or MRI machine), 30 minutes of technicians time, use of x-ray film, use of an x-ray developer and associated chemical supplies, and 15 minutes of a radiologist's time to interpret the images.

By describing events in the context of a procedural pathway, a framework is provided which allows for the systematic classification of the steps necessary to treat a particular patient as well as identifying the resource allocation necessary to properly complete the clinical pathway. In the current healthcare environment of cost control and containment, the use of the clinical pathway framework provides an effective and efficient method for characterizing and analyzing the provision of health-care services in the clinical environment.

The provision of medical supplies for use in the clinical environment, most particularly in the hospital environment, has evolved through over time as the nature of health care provision and, importantly, cost reimbursement, has changed. For example, in the past, the most common way for supplies to be obtained by hospitals was for a central supply service to order the individual supplies anticipated to be needed for a given time period. These supplies would be maintained in a supply room until needed for a given procedure. Once a procedure had been scheduled, a pick list (a list of supplies) would be generated based on the procedure and the doctor performing the procedure. A hospital employee would then use the pick list to withdraw the desired items from inventory and place them in the operating room where the procedure would take place. After the procedure was completed, unused supplies would be returned to inventory, a list of used supplies provided to the billing department, and the used supplies disposed of or re-sterilized. However, this system was costly and inefficient.

For example, a relatively large inventory of supplies had to be maintained, particularly for standard items such as drapes, sponges, sutures, clamps, etc., which could be used in a large variety of procedures. The inventory of such items had to be large in order to insure that sufficient quantities were on hand for every procedure. Furthermore, the act of picking items for surgery and, later, restocking unused items, was onerous and expensive since relatively highly skilled labor was utilized to insure that the proper items were collected and that the restocked items were placed in the proper location. In particular, the restocking of unused items was a substantial burden on the hospital. Due to the then current mode of reimbursement for supply costs. Each item pulled from inventory had to be either used (and billed for) or restocked (and not billed for). If an item was not used during the procedure and was billed for anyway, the billing for that product could be considered fraud on the reimburser. Since items were often individually wrapped, the restocking procedure could be very time consuming, particularly where sufficient quantities of items were picked from inventory to cover any situation during surgery (i.e., it would not be uncommon to withdraw 10 clamps from inventory and use only 3 or 4, except in situations where heavy bleeding is encountered, which might necessitate the use of all 10).

This situation led to the development of the procedural pack or procedural pack. Initially, suppliers started noting that certain combinations of supplies were used in almost all surgeries. For example, a series of drapes would almost always be used. Thus, a procedural drape pack was developed which included a collection of the most commonly used drapes in numbers commonly used. These drapes were packaged and sterilized as a unit, so that the use of any portion of the unit constituted use of the entire unit. For example, the pack might contain 5 drapes, but only four might be used during surgery. However, since the package was opened, and sterility was thereby compromised, the entire unit could legitimately be considered used. Although some waste occurred, this system cut out the required re-stocking cost was eliminated.

Initially, small procedural packs and trays were developed for common events. Incision trays, anesthesia trays, suture kits and a variety of other procedural packs, or supply bundles, were developed. As hospitals grew more used to the concept of procedural packs and packs, the demand for more comprehensive supply bundles increased. The procedural pack or pack ultimately evolved into a large bundle, differentiated by surgical procedure, that included all disposable components for that procedure.

In the era of cost-plus reimbursement, the hospitals had an incentive to use ever growing, comprehensive procedural packs. Use of a large pack, with all possible components present, served to minimize the amount of labor required to pick items from inventory and restock unused item. Additionally, it allowed hospitals to greatly reduce their inventory since such packs could be ordered on an as-needed basis, instead of maintaining a large inventory of supplies. However, in order to increase these efficiencies, the packs had to be able to cover any possibility that might reasonably be encountered during the procedure, and often included a large amount of supplies which were not often used in most procedures.

With the advent of cost-containment in the health-care environment, the care providers are required by the reimbursers, to minimize expense and cost wherever possible. Under the tenets of managed care, if a supply is not used during a procedure, then the reimburser is not willing to pay for that supply. This environment leads back toward the concept of having an inventory of supplies which are pulled and then restocked when unused. However, reimbursers do realize that some waste in the use of supplies is justified in order to minimize labor expenses concerned with the pulling and restocking of supplies. Thus, the pressure on suppliers led to the development of "custom procedural packs." These custom trays attempt to be comprehensive, but are tailored to the circumstances to attempt to minimize waste. For example, there is a "parts list" or supply list generated by each doctor for each procedure performed by that doctor in a given hospital. Thus, doctors are able to specify the supplies desired, the quantities desired and, if a preference is felt, the brand and type of the desired supply. Thus, if Doctor A uses more lap sponges than Doctor B, their preference cards will differ. Under the cost-plus reimbursement scenario, a procedural pack would have been developed which just had the maximum number of lap sponges used by any doctor. The extra lap sponges in a tray provided to Doctor B would just be wasted. However, under managed care, a custom procedural pack could be developed for Doctor A and Doctor B which allowed for the differing preferences. Once again, however, the more specialized the custom procedural pack, the more inventory will have to be maintained. Since there is the potential for each doctor to have a different custom procedural pack for each different procedure performed by the doctor, there would be no standardization of trays in inventory and, therefore, a number of each custom procedural packs would be required for each doctor.

In the final analysis, a balance must be met between standardization of procedural packs, which will allow for the greatest savings in inventory, because more standardized trays can be used for more different doctors and procedures, and customization which minimizes the waste developed due to usage differences from doctor to doctor and procedure to procedure. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the proper balance of standardization and customization will result in the minimum of cost, by minimizing both waste and inventory. Thus, with proper balancing, both the reimburser will save money, due to decreased waste and/or decreased labor costs due to less time spent picking items of supply for surgery, and the care provider will save money, due to inventory control.

Custom procedural packs have been present in the medical supply industry almost since the inception of the procedural pack. As a marketing technique, the tray manufacturers were willing to customize trays to gain a competitive advantage over other manufacturers and gain an entree to new accounts. However, recently, the industry has become more sophisticated in developing custom packs and trays with the cooperation of the customers. Initially, custom procedural packs were slight variations of standard trays or packs already offered by the manufacturer. However, with increasing customization demands and ever changing product offerings, a more sophisticated method of developing custom procedural packs was required.

One approach to the problem is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,728 to DeBusk et al., entitled Method For The Supply Of Medical Supplies To A Health-Care Institution Based On A Nested Bill Of Materials On A Procedure Level, the entire specification of which is hereby incorporated by reference as if set forth herein. As may be seen in this application, using the clinical pathway approach described above, each medical procedure may be described as a series of procedures to be performed in a specified order. Thus, at each step in the clinical pathway, the supplies needed to complete that step can be expressed as a supply bundle (or bundles) which will be utilized during that step. Thus, using the clinical pathway model, a nested bill of materials for a given clinical pathway, at the procedural level, may be generated to develop a supply list for the contents of a custom procedural pack. The clinical pathway model allows for an easier approach to analyzing the supplies which will be needed at each step, since it provides a break-down of each phase of a medical procedure.

The procedure for developing the types of custom procedural packs described herein will include some starting point based upon historical usage. For example, say that the hospital already has a standard procedural pack for a laproscopic gall bladder surgery. The supply list for this standard procedural pack could provide the template for developing the custom procedural packs for that hospital. After first organizing the template supply list into a nested bill of materials (as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,728), the template would be modified by each doctor's preference card to develop a custom nested bill of materials for each doctor who performs that procedure in the hospital. The step of organizing this initial bill of materials for each doctor will require some judgment in order that minor differences in supply usage are minimized (i.e., if one doctor uses 2 units of a low cost item, and another doctor uses 3 units of the same item, it is probably cheaper to standardized both bills of materials to 3 units; conversely, if the item is a high cost item, it is best to differentiate the bills of materials). The result is that a bill of materials for a procedural pack is developed for each doctor for each procedure.

With a bill of materials developed for each procedural pack for each procedure, the various suppliers of the products can then develop supply bundles for each step set out in the clinical pathway. Typically, not all of the supplies will be provided by a single supplier or manufacturer, so that, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,728, multiple supply sources will develop supply bundles for inclusion into the procedural pack for a given customer. As described in that application, a container may be shipped to each source of supplies and the supplies provided by that source can be added to the container, thus reducing the time and shipping costs associated with collecting an shipping various components to a single assembly location. In operation, the initial source of the container would develop a work order based on the nested bill of materials which each supplier would use to add the appropriate supply bundles to the container. Alternatively, each supplier could ship its supply bundle to a centralized assembly location for assembly of the container and shipment to the ultimate customer. This supply paradigm provides the customer and the suppliers with a framework within which the suppliers can respond very rapidly to an order by the hospital for a custom procedural pack. Thus, even though there exists the possibility that a large number of different trays may be developed for each hospital, the hospital need not maintain a large inventory of such custom procedural packs since the supply process has been streamlined. With proper implementation of the system, a very small number of custom procedural packs may be kept in inventory by the hospital (maybe one week's worth) which will obviously reduce the inventory costs of the hospital. Similarly, since the parts list, or nested bill of materials for each tray has been analyzed, waste is minimized and efficiency is enhanced.

In this supply paradigm, which has been implemented by the assignee hereof, DeRoyal Industries, Inc., under the trademark and service mark TRACEPAK™, an attempt is made at the time of the development of the nested bill of materials for each custom procedural pack to minimize waste while maximizing standardization to ultimately reduce the overall cost to the care provider. However, this initial analysis is not sufficient to insure that the bill of materials remains optimized. For example, doctors are constantly revising their supply usage based upon new surgical techniques. Similarly, manufacturers are constantly updating their products to incorporate new products and developments. Also, prices are constantly changing in the marketplace.

Typically, the use of a custom procedural pack will result in a variety of benefits to the hospital such as ease of ordering, ease of cost accounting, ease of use for doctors and other care providers, etc. However, it was often difficult to track the efficiency of usage of the supplies provided in such trays to determine if all of the necessary products were present in the tray, were there supplies in the tray that were not routinely used, were there sources of supplies for the tray which could get a better cost than the manufacturer of the tray.

Furthermore, hospitals typically had a multitude of information systems relating to the usage and ordering of supplies for procedures. For example, the hospital billing system would often be one system which was used to track costs to be billed to patients for the purposes of generating billing statements. Another system might be used to submit information to insurers and other payment providers to submit claims for payment for particular services and costs. A further system might be used to control the hospital supply inventory. Finally, an additional system might be used to keep track of doctors procedural supply preferences and the contents of custom procedural packs.

With the plurality of information systems, often, a hospital or clinic has trouble tracking exactly what supplies are being provided for a given procedure, what supplies are actually used in a given procedure and trending historical usage for the purposes of projecting future usage as well as fine tuning the contents of custom procedural packs.

One system which has been used in the past, either as a computer maintained list, or on paper, has been a resource consumption log. This system basically provides a list of supplies provided during a given procedure and, either as they are used, or after the procedure, a simple tally is made to determine if the quantity of usage of the listed supplies. These types of supply usage counts would typically be nothing more than lists generated from the packing list of the custom procedural pack and the supply preference list provided by the doctors and care givers associated with each procedure. Typically, this type of tally was used primarily for the purposes of cost recovery and inventory replenishment. However, the lists associated with such previous logs were sometime unwieldy and difficult to use. Furthermore, these prior art systems required entry of the data into multiple systems and, typically, the data was not used for analysis or trending.

In the current health care environment, there is increased pressure to track and minimize costs associated with the delivery of health care. One of the major areas of cost in any healthcare facility is the supplies used during medical procedures. Often, hospitals and clinics utilized procedural packs which are designed to have all of the supplies that a surgeon or other caregiver might need to use during the procedure. However, when these procedural packs are designed to be comprehensive, there can be considerable waste of supplies simply because they are not used during a particular procedure. Conversely, sometimes a supply is used frequently is not included in a procedural pack, thus requiring that hospital or clinic supplied labor be used to keep an inventory of such supplies and make sure that such supplies are delivered to the care site for the procedure. However, prior art supply tracking methods and systems do not provide an integrated package for the tracking of anticipated usage and actual usage.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method and system for the tracking of medical supply usage on a procedural level in the context of a hospital or other care site.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method for the tracking of medical supply usage which provides integrated historical record keeping.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method and system for the tracking of medical supply usage which provides the capability of comparing actual supply usage on the procedural level to anticipated supply usage on the procedural level.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and system for refining a bill of materials representing supplies provided in a procedural pack based upon a historical comparison of anticipated usage and actual usage.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and system for tracking the usage of medical resources, such as supplies, equipment and personnel at the procedural level for the purposes of analysis and cost recovery.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The above objects and additional functional criteria are provided in a method of supply usage tracking performed in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a process for the tracking of medical supply usage on a procedural level in a clinical setting. The process involves the steps of creating a procedural template including at least a partial list of supplies or resources to be used during a given medical procedure. Also, a recordation form is created for the given procedure which is based upon the procedural template. The recordation form includes at least a partial listing of the anticipated supplies to be used during the procedure. The recordation form is then used to record actual supply or resource usage information based upon the actual usage of supplies or resources during the performing of the procedure. Finally, the usage information from the form is saved in a retrievable manner for use in the analysis of supply or resource usage.

In a further preferred embodiment of the present invention, the procedural template is created by expressing a medical procedure as a series of care events and associating supplies or resources used during the medical procedure with the care event in which the supply is used. Lists of associated supply bundles for each expressed care event are then created.

In a further preferred embodiment of the present invention, the procedural template and recordation form are provided as electronic forms on a computer system to allow the information to be created, stored, analyzed and retrieved electronically. Additionally, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the resource usage information from any number of separately performed procedures may be recorded and stored to develop a historical database of resource consumption/usage. This historical database may be analyzed to predict future supply usage, minimized wasted resources, standardize procedural resource allocation, allow for just-in-time ordering, inventory control, or manufacturing practices or allow for increased accuracy in the cost recovery process.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the basic process steps of the preferred embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a print-out of a procedural template/bill of materials.

FIGS. 3a and 3b are a print-out of a recordation form.

FIG. 4 is a screen shot of the login screen of the Example.

FIGS. 5-12 are screen shots of the various screens encountered in logging a procedure in the Example.

FIG. 13 is a screen shot showing the creation of reports in the Example.

FIGS. 14-16 are examples of reports generated by the software of the Example.

FIG. 17 is a screen shot showing the input of patient information in the Example.

FIG. 18 is a screen shot showing the input of employee information in the Example.

FIGS. 19-26 are screen shots showing the creation and maintenance of bundles in the Example.

FIGS. 27-32 are screen shots showing the searching, editing and completion of procedures in the Example.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring now to the Figures in which like reference numerals indicate like or corresponding features throughout the Figures, there is shown in FIG. 1 a block diagram representing the basic method of the present invention. In the most basic embodiment of the present invention, the first step, shown at 100, represents the creation of a template for a given procedure. This template includes at least a partial listing of resources required for a given medical procedure and is organized based on a procedural or clinical pathway. Once the template is created and a procedure corresponding to the procedure of the template is scheduled, a recordation form is created (Step 2, 102) which represents a list of all resources provided to the care site. Either as the procedure is performed, or soon thereafter, actual consumption of resources is entered onto the recordation form (Step 3, 104). Recordation of actual consumption will include the entry of resources consumed during the procedure, whether such resources were included in the template or not. Additionally, the failure to consume scheduled during the procedure is logged on the recordation form. In fact, in the preferred embodiment, supply usage is logged by exception; that is, the recordation form shows the scheduled usage and, unless a deviation from the scheduled usage occurs, no entry is made, it will then be assumed that actual usage conformed to scheduled usage. The recordation form may be a printed item generated by the manufacturer, distributor or user, or it may reside on a computer.

The template and the recordation form are both saved (Step 4, 106) in a retrievable manner. Finally, at a desired time, the template and/or recordation form may be retrieved (Step 5, 108) for use resource utilization analysis.

The simplest form of resource utilization analysis consists of reviewing the recordation form to generate a list of supplies used during a procedure for the purpose of billing the recipient of the healthcare services. Other forms of analysis could include a comparison of the recordation form to the template to determine how actual usage during the procedure compared to the anticipated usage as set out in the template. (Step 6, 101) Such analysis would allow for the refinement of the template (Step 7, 103) in order to minimize the purchase of anticipated supplies, or scheduling of resources which are not actually used during the procedure. More detailed analysis of resource consumption over time might be used in order to identify similarities between bills of materials for different procedures, or for multiple doctors performing the same procedure. By identifying such similarities, the bills of materials could be standardized, thus simplifying and reducing the cost of ordering, (Step 8, 105) stocking, and inventory maintenance.

In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the templates and completed recordation forms are stored in a computer maintained database. (Step 9, 107) This database may be specially developed for this purpose, or may be a commercially available database program such as Access, by Microsoft or SQL/Server. Preferably, the information is saved such that it may be sorted in any number of ways. For example, the information could be sorted by procedures originating from a given template; thus for all procedures performed originating from that template, supply usage and deviation from the template could be tracked (Step 10, 109) (also, this sort could also limit in time the number of procedures tracked). Furthermore, using the report generation function of the database software, usage summaries could be generated. (Step 11, 111) Alternatively, the information could be sorted by physician, thus allowing the usage information of a particular physician to be reviewed over time. This information could be compared to the template, or to other physicians, to determine if possibilities exist to standardize physician preference lists to minimize inventory and labor costs associated with maintaining a large number of physician requested items which deviate from the template. (Step 12, 113)

It should be apparent to one skilled in the art that a wide variety of database sorts, reports, comparisons, summaries, etc. are easily generated from the information available in the template and the resource consumption. Also, the information so saved can be used in a variety of ways such as cost accounting (Step 13, 115), supply standardization, inventory control and reduction, supply requirement projections, etc. Thus, the foregoing description is for the purpose of illustration and not limitation.

Referring now to FIG. 2, there is shown a nested bill of materials 110, on a procedural level, which might form the basis of a template. The first step in implementing the method of the present invention, is to develop a template of all the materials expected to be used in a given medical procedure. Such a bill of materials 110, may be the starting point for developing a template for a particular procedure.

The nested bill of materials 110 has several important features which make it useful for a starting point for a template (although the invention is not limited to a procedural pathway/nested bill of materials as a template starting point). As was described in the Background of the Invention, utilizing the procedural pathway principle to organize a medical procedure as a series of related sub-procedures, provides a nested structure for describing the medical procedure. Similarly, for each sub-procedure in the procedural pathway, a supply bundle may be designated which would include a list of all the supplies for that step in the procedural pathway. For example, on the nested bill of materials 110, part no. 91-OPER0542 (112), refers to an Operative Care Event 113. Upon closer examination, it is seen that the bill of materials also lists at the next level two part numbers (92-DER0542OPER (114) and 92-DLR0542OPER) (116) which correspond to supply bundles for the Operative Care Event 113; the first part number 114 refers to a supply bundle prepared by DeRoyal Industries and the second part number 116 refers to a supply bundle provided by a third party dealer. Moving to the next level of detail, the parts for the DeRoyal™ bundle 92-DER9542OPER are listed; part no. 25-3001 (118) represents a skin staples while part number 89-0308 (120) minor spine surgery kit or tray. At the next level of detail, the components of the minor spine kit are listed; it should be noted that the components of the kit or tray may also be bundles of supplies as is seen with reference to part no. SA89-0308P-1 (which is a cautery pencil with sub-components 5-3214 and 5-3373). The nested bill of materials 110 is recursive, i.e. each level may contain a part which is in turn made up of individual parts. However, ultimately, individual parts will be listed at the level of greatest detail.

In the case of FIG. 2, the nested bill of materials corresponds to a sample bill of materials from a unitized supply delivery system sold by DeRoyal Industries, Inc. under the trademark and service mark TRACEPAK™. The DeRoyal TRACEPAK™ system is a system whereby hospitals, with the assistance of DeRoyal, dealers, and the distributor, build unitized supply delivery bundles by sourcing the components from the most cost effective source (i.e. manufacturer, distributor or end-user). In the TRACEPAK™ system, a computerized bill of materials is created representing all of the components of a particular procedure as included in the TRACEPAK™ system for the customer (the printout of FIG. 2 is a paper version of the computerized bill of materials).

When a procedure is scheduled at a customer's healthcare facility, an order for the corresponding unitized container is transmitted electronically to DeRoyal which assembles sterile supply bundles, places them in the container and then ships it to the distributor for addition of its supply bundles, which then ships it to the user. Alternatively, all supply bundles from all of the suppliers may be shipped to a centralized assembly facility where the container may be filled with the required supply bundles and shipped to the customer. In the case of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the nested bill of materials is used as the procedural template; however, any list of resources to be used in the procedure could be a starting point for the procedural template. The reason that the nested bill of materials is used in the preferred embodiment is that for users of the TRACEPAK™ system, these bills of materials are stored digitally and may be readily imported into the computer implemented version of the preferred embodiment.

At the time the TRACEPAK™ is assembled, a work order is generated which corresponds to a list of all the supplies provided in a given TRACEPAK™. To the extent that a given supply is out of stock or otherwise unavailable, a substitution will be made. As shown in FIGS. 3a and 3b, an inventory list (or "pick list") 124 of all the items actually included in the TRACEPAK™ being shipped to the hospital is generated and is used as the recordation form referred to in FIG. 1. This recordation form 124 provides for a convenient reference for the healthcare facility personnel to use during the procedure to log usage of supplies at the time of consumption.

Typically, this completed recordation form 124 would be entered into electronic form after the procedure for storage and for analysis in comparison to the procedural template. One of the most basic analyses would be a comparison of the anticipated supply usage as set out in the template to the actual usage as set out in the recordation form 124. As is seen in FIGS. 3a and 3b, the preferred recordation form 124 shows the scheduled (anticipated) usage of each item 126 and has a blank 128 for entry of the number of items actually used. There are also blanks for showing the number of items scrapped 130 or returned 132 if less than all of the items were used (this information is useful in determining the cost of the procedure since scrapped items are "used" and must be paid for while returned items should not be charged for). The stored version would be identical except that all of the usage information would be present (there would be no blanks); also, to the extent that supplies were used, but not scheduled prior to the procedure, these items would be added with the scheduled or issued amount showing zero.

Utilizing this basic comparison, a hospital may compare their custom procedural pack parts list and compare it to actual usage. In situations where a component is not used, that component may be eliminated from the tray, resulting in a cost savings for the hospital or healthcare provider. In situations where a component not scheduled on the template is frequently used in given procedure, it can be added to the procedural pack in order to save the hospital labor costs and inventory costs associated with keeping that component on hand and retrieving it for use during the procedure.

The above example of a preferred embodiment of the present invention particularly directed to the DeRoyal TRACEPAK™ custom procedural pack environment and utilizes the nested bill of materials associated with that system as a template. Particulars of such nested bills of materials and methods and systems for ordering medical supplies are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,728 to DeBusk et al., entitled Method For The Supply Of Medical Supplies To A Health-Care Institution Based On A Nested Bill Of Materials On A Procedure Level, the entire specification of which is hereby incorporated by reference thereto as if fully set forth herein.

While the bill of materials for a unitized container delivery system, procedural pack, doctor preference card or other supply list associated with a certain procedure is a logical starting point for developing a template, template development need not start with such lists or bills of material. For example, in developing a template for use in the present system, the user of the system could start developing by developing a procedural pathway describing each phase of the care event. As each phase of the care event is mapped, more detail is added, until at the end, a procedural pathway listing all or most of the resources used in carrying out a particular procedure is listed. This listing would then serve as the template.

For example, a given surgical procedure might consist of multiple distinct phases such as admission to the hospital, bloodwork/testing, surgical prep, anesthesia, surgery, post-operative recovery, and discharge. Each of these seven phases would typically include one or more care events requiring resource utilization. For example, the surgical prep phase might include the use of an orderly for doing the prep work and a prep tray for preparing the incision site. Further, there would be a list of materials comprising the prep tray. Thus, the template for the surgical prep phase of the procedure would include at least the prep tray and could include the orderly (in order to facilitate analysis of labor requirements).

This process of breaking down each phase of the procedure would ultimately result in a template that preferably, ultimately includes all supplies/materials used in the procedure and, if desired, could include all other resources such as labor resources, re-usable equipment and supplies, etc. Conversely, the template might only include a subset of an overall procedure, such as surgical prep, anesthesia, surgery, post-op, or even just a single phase, if so desired.

The procedural pathway organization of the information is very helpful in that it makes it easier for the care giver responsible for tracking resource consumption to properly associate actual resource consumption with the appropriate portion of the recordation form. For example, a commonly used supply during any medical procedure is a hemostat. Typically, many hemostats are used during various phases of surgery, and if the recordation form and template are not properly organized, it is difficult to determine, after the fact, when a hemostat is used. Thus, without procedural pathway organization of the information, it might not be possible to determine if certain quantities of hemostats were used during anesthesia, during surgery, during closing, or during recovery. For example, if only the total number of hemostats is recorded, and it turns out that five hemostats were not used, it would not be possible to determine where the overage originated (i.e., whether there were too many hemostats in the anesthesia tray, the incision tray, the suture tray, etc.). Thus, it would not be possible to refine the tray contents based upon the recorded information, even though it is known that extra hemostats were included. However, using the procedure based structure for the template and the recordation form, it is possible to track usage at the procedural level and determine exactly where mismatches between expected usage (from the template) and actual usage (from the recordation form) occur.

Furthermore, in the preferred embodiment, the recorded information is provided as input to a historical database. Each record in the database corresponds to a given procedure on a given patient. Thus, utilizing standard database commands and structure, a historical record of resource consumption may be developed and analyzed. For example, the database could be searched to determine the frequency with which the actual usage differed from the expected usage for a given procedure. Thus, looking at the historical data, a supply administrator could then take steps to change the supply orders so that frequently underutilized resources were excluded from future orders. Conversely, if it were observed that products which were not included on the template were frequently used during a given procedure, such products might be added to a custom procedural pack to reduce the labor and inventory costs associated with pulling that item from the hospital supply room and shifting those costs to the manufacturer or supplier.

Additionally, the historical data will allow for the analysis of overall resource consumption for desired time periods. This information allows supply users, manufacturers and distributors to review historical usage and plan future production and inventory accordingly. In the current environment of just in time manufacturing and just in time shipping, such data, organized in accordance with the template and the recordation form, will allow such users of the information to properly determine how to schedule production, raw material orders, inventory management, delivery, etc. in order to most cost effectively provide the necessary products to the users.

Furthermore, to the extent that labor and re-usable equipment resources are included in the template and record-keeping, this information could be used for analyzing current staffing requirements, projecting future staffing levels and analyzing re-usable equipment requirements. For example, if labor resources (such as orderlies, nurses and doctors) were included on the template and recordation form, then it would be possible to track anticipated labor requirements with actual usage. Using historical data, it would be possible to eliminate unnecessary personnel resources, or determine if additional resources are required. Furthermore, since historical usage could be tracked, such data would be useful for projecting future needs and cyclical variations for making staffing decisions and scheduling changes. In the area of re-usable medical equipment (such as respirators, heart-lung machines, dialysis machines, etc.) that may be used during the course of a medical procedure, inclusion in the template and the recordation form would allow analysis to determine if usage estimates are accurate and allow for more informed decisions concerning new equipment purchases.

As a final benefit of implementation of the present invention, the consumption data generated may be used to assist in more accurately billing for supplies used and services rendered. For example, in some instances it is possible that supplies provided to the care event site and either used or not used may not be properly tracked. This situation results in billing errors, either resulting in the hospital not recovering legitimate expenses, or in patient overcharging. However, with the procedure based organization, the recordation form and the information contained in the template, highly accurate resource utilization information is generated and may be used in the billing of costs to the patient.

EXAMPLE DeRoyal Industries' RCL™ Software

Referring now to FIGS. 4 through 32, a preferred embodiment of a system for implementing the present invention will be described. This implementation was made in the context as an additional module for DeRoyal Industries, Inc.'s, TRACEPAK™ unitized medical supply delivery system (this product us currently sold by DeRoyal Industries, Inc. under the trademark RCL™ (Resource Consumption Log). These Figures represent screen shots showing all of the various functions of the RCL™ software and, as such, represent a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Although this particular embodiment shows cooperation with the DeRoyal TRACEPAK™ unitized delivery system, the software could be adapted to run with other unitized delivery systems, or with any other supply system used by a healthcare provider.

As an initial note, this software has been programmed in Visual Basic Enterprise Edition, available from Microsoft, Inc. and versions are compatible with the Microsoft Access database software and/or SQL/Server software running under Microsoft Windows 3.X, Windows 95 or Windows NT. It should be noted that the program could be readily developed in a variety of other programming languages such as C++, could be adapted to work with a variety of other database software, or run under a variety of different operating systems such as DOS, MacIntosh, or Unix by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention. As a final note, database tree structures, tables and schema are included below in Tables I-XVI for the purposes of completeness. It is believed that the following description would be sufficient to allow one of ordinary skill in the art to reproduce this preferred embodiment of the invention without reference to Tables I-XVI; however, the included database organization information in Tables I-XVI shows how the database functions described below are implemented in a Windows NT™ (a trademark of Microsoft Corporation) and SQL/Server environment.

As a final note before discussing the specifics of the preferred embodiment, in the case of the preferred embodiment described below, the necessary background information has already been entered. For example, the initial step of generating bills of materials for each procedure performed by the hospital (Step 1 of FIG. 1) and entering the supply, doctor, employee and other information has already taken place. As the discussion progresses, it will be noted how to input such information; however, the starting point will assume the input of much of the required information.

Logging A Procedure

Referring now to FIG. 4, the initial screen is shown which performs the function of restricting access to the program and database to authorized persons. The user would enter the appropriate information in the appropriate blank and then click on the OK button 134 to proceed. Not only will the login screen shown in FIG. 4 restrict access to authorized personnel, it will, as is known in the art, call up the appropriate database information for use in the program.

FIG. 5 shows the TRACEPAK™ screen 135 which would appear after a successful login. As is known to anyone familiar with the Microsoft Windows operating system, the menu bar 136 sits at the top of the screen and has top level menus such as file 138, view 150, maintenance 142 and help 144. Each of these top level menus have sub-menus associated therewith which will allow the user to select certain functions and actions. In the case of the menu bar 135 of the preferred embodiment, the maintenance top level menu 142 will provide most of the functionality specific to the preferred embodiment of the present invention and the functions provided thereby will be described in detail below.

Also shown in FIG. 5 is a split screen display in which the overall information is shown in a tree display 146 and details of the selected level of the tree are shown in a list display 148. As is shown in FIG. 5, the folder TRACEPAKS™ 150 is selected in the tree display 146 and, therefore, a list of all the TRACEPAKS™ for that particular hospital is shown in the list display 148. More specifically, the list display 148 shows the part number 152 and a brief description 154 of each TRACEPAK™ contained in the TRACEPAK™ folder 150. In the setting illustrated here, each of the TRACEPAKS™ represents a supply grouping for a particular procedure. In a setting in which DeRoyal's TRACEPAK™ system is not in use, the TRACEPAK™ folder 150 could simply be replaced with a folder for supply lists and each list could then correspond to a type of surgical or medical procedure.

In FIG. 6, A Perfusion TRACEPAK™ 156 has been selected from the tree display 146 and the properties function has been activated (in this embodiment, the properties function is activated with a click of the right mouse key (a standard operation under the Windows 95 and Windows NT™ operating systems) and calls up a menu of functions specific to the highlighted item). In particular, the properties function, when activated with this selection, calls a menu 158 which provides the user with the option of entering a new procedure 160, renaming the selected item 162, printing 164, setting up the print characteristics 166, expanding the tree 168 (which would show sub-headings), collapsing the tree 170, generating reports 172 or exiting 174. These choices are known to be available because these selections are shown in bold on the properties menu 158 when that function is available.

FIG. 7 shows a window which opens when the new procedure function was selected in the properties menu 158 described with respect to FIG. 6. The new procedure function results in the opening of the procedure information screen 176, this screen allows the user to input information concerning a procedure for which supply consumption logging need to be completed. Each new procedure is assigned a unique case number 178, used for tracking purposes. Either the software will provide the number, or alternatively, the hospital may assign a number corresponding to their admissions and patient identification practices. The date on which the procedure takes place is entered in the appropriate blank 180. The description 182, is automatically generated and includes the case number and the type of procedure. The user is also required to enter a surgeon's name in the appropriate location 184; the surgeon may be selected from a pre-entered list, or, if not on the list, may be added (inputting employee information will be described later). The save as box 186, allows the user to select a folder where the information about the procedure will be stored for later retrieval. The remaining boxes allow the user to identify the manufacturer's lot number 188, for the supply bundle listed and, import information from another software platform which may include additional items of supply not listed in the bill of materials 188.

Once the information on the new procedure is entered, the user may select the Schedule function 190, if the procedure is to be performed in the future or, if the procedure has already been performed, may select the Log/Save function 192. If the Schedule function 190 is selected, the user will be provided with a location in which to enter the scheduling information before exiting the New Procedure screen 176 and being returned to the TRACEPAK™ Management screen 135.

If the Log/Save function 192 is selected, the next screen seen by the user will be the Bundles screen 194 shown in FIG. 8. As was described previously, the idea of the bill of materials developed at the procedural level is to develop a supply list or bundle which is applicable to all surgical or medical procedures of a given type. For example, when developing a Knee Arthroscopy bill of materials, the goal is to include a standard listing of all supplies that are used in every performance of that procedure. However, individual doctors may require additional and/or specific items which will vary from doctor to doctor. The preferred embodiment allows for that type of deviation by allowing the development of Conditional Bundles. These bundles are simply groups of supplies which are not included in the standard procedural bill of materials due to their dependence upon conditions such as who is performing the procedure. These lists may be developed beforehand or, may be developed at the time a new procedure is set up.

Referring now to FIG. 8, When the Bundles screen 194 is shown, the user is presented with information on pre-developed conditional bundles available for the given procedure in the Available Bundles window 196. As is seen in the example of FIG. 8, there are two conditional bundles available, one for Dr. Sardon and one for Dr. Williams. Since Dr. Jones is the surgeon for the procedure, his conditional supply bundle was selected in the example of FIG. 8 and therefore appears in the Selected Bundles window 198. As a feature to prevent double listing, once an available conditional supply bundle is selected, it is no long present in the Available Bundles window 196. Once all of the pertinent conditional bundles for the procedure are selected, the user would select the Finish function 200, and the next screen would appear.

The next screen to appear after selecting the Finish function 200 on the Bundles screen would be the TRACEPAK™ Logging screen 202 shown in FIG. 9. Basically, in the tree window 204, there is provided a nested bill of materials. The highest level is the TRACEPAK™ level 206, (or for a non-TRACEPAK™ system user, the highest level would be the name of the procedure). Displayed at the next level are the procedural care events 208, 210. In the case of the example, the selected TRACEPAK™ is an Perfusion TracePak™ with which is associated two care events: 1) delivery care event 208 and 2) operative care event 210. These care events 208,210 represent the procedural level nesting discussed in the Background Of The Invention and represent sub-steps in the completion of the Perfusion procedure. At the next level, supply bundles and individual supplies associated with the care event may be listed. In the example of FIG. 9, the delivery care event 208 has two supply bundles associated with it: 1) a DeRoyal supply bundle for delivery 212 and 2) a DBS doctor preference bundle 214. Although not shown in this example, additional supply bundles or individually listed supplies could also be shown at this level.

Similarly, the operative care event 210 has two supply bundles 216, 218 associated with it. One is an OMI supply bundle for the operating room 216 and the other is the Dr. Jones Perfusion bundle 218 previously discussed with reference to FIG. 8.

At the next level of detail the contents of the supply bundles 214 and 218 are shown. In this example of FIG. 9, this is the most detailed level and individual supplies are shown. However, it is possible that the content of the any of the bundles could also be bundles and additional levels could be present. Furthermore, as is shown in FIG. 9, the plus signs 220 and 222 next to the DeRoyal supply bundle for delivery 212, and the OMI supply bundle for the operating room 216 indicate that there is an additional level of detail. In the case of these examples, selecting the plus icons 220 and 222 would result in the revealing of the individual components of these bundles 212, 216.

By selecting the highest level of the tree in the TRACEPAK™ Logging screen (selected by activation of the properties function which is accessible under the Edit menu 224 or by right clicking on the desired level), in this example the Perfusion TracePak™ level 206 in FIG. 9, the Detail Information Screen 226 of FIG. 10 will appear. This screen 226 shows the part no. 228, a description 230, the scheduled amount 232, the issued amount 234, the consumed amount 236, the scrapped amount 238 and the returned amount 240 for each individual supply item listed in the bill of materials for the selected procedure. This list will include the materials originally present in the selected template and the materials added through the addition of conditional supply bundles. It is at this point that resource consumption will be logged.

In the DeRoyal TRACEPAK™ system, each supply container contains a printed sheet similar to that shown as the screen 226 in FIG. 10 (pick list 124 from FIGS. 3a and 3b). This sheet 124 may be used for real time logging of resource consumption as the procedure is performed so that the computer logging can be completed at a later time. However, the information shown on the screen 226 may also be printed to provide such a sheet, or consumption may be logged onto the computer in real-time without the use of a print-out.

The Detail Information screen 226 is basically pre-completed in that the software assumes that the consumption of an item is equal to the scheduled amount of the item, if no entry is made. This feature makes it easier to log resource consumption since only exceptions or deviations from the scheduled usage need to be made. For example, if the only deviation from the scheduled usage was that only 1 unit of part number 001376700939, 242, was used during the procedure, the 3 in the consumed column 236 for that part would be changed to 2. If the remaining unit were scrapped or returned, 1 would be placed in either the scrapped column 238 or the returned column 240 for that part.

In some circumstances the need will arise for a part that was not originally scheduled for a procedure. Where such a part was used during the procedure, it can be added to the Detail Information screen 236 (and thus, included in the logging) by selecting the add function 244 from the Detail Information screen 236.

Once selected, the add function 236 will cause the Add Part To Procedure screen 246 to appear as shown in FIG. 11. This screen will allow the user to add a part number 248 which will add the information to the consumption log. Typically, the only number entered into the quantities boxes 248, 250, 252 will be the number consumed (in this case 5) since the part was not previously scheduled or issued. If the part is typed in, and it has already been listed when the database was set up, the user can then select the Done function 254 and be returned to the Detail Information screen 226 of FIG. 10. If the user does not know the part number, or if the part has not previously been entered into the system, the user may select the Add this Part or Search for Part functions, 256, 258 and be transferred to the Part Maintenance screen 260 shown in FIG. 12.

The Part Maintenance screen 260 allows the user search for parts to add to consumption logs in the Detail Information screen 226 of FIG. 10, or to add new parts previously not listed to the database. This function is also accessible under the Maintenance menu selection 142 of FIG. 5 and would be used in the setting up of the user's database to enter the parts to be a component of the database.

The Part Maintenance screen 260 provides search functions such as first 262, previous 264, next 266 and last 268 which allows the user to cycle through the individual part records to find a desired part. The add 270, edit 272, delete 274, and save 276 functions allow a user to add a new part, edit the record of the part on the screen, delete the part on the screen or save the information about the part on the screen. The clear function 278 will clear the current record from the screen. The various blanks are self explanatory and provide information about the part for use in cost recovery and usage analysis. Once the new part is entered, or changes are made in the Part Maintenance screen 266, the user would select either OK 280 or cancel 282 to exit this function and would be returned to wherever the user had been prior to accessing this function. If the user had been logging a procedure, the user could then complete the logging of the procedure.

Once the logging of the procedure has been completed on the Detail Information screen 226 of FIG. 10, the user would select the OK function 284 which would end the consumption logging process for that procedure and would return the user to the TRACEPAK™ Management screen 135 of FIG. 5. Conversely, in this embodiment, the user has the option of highlighting a supply in the list shown on the TRACEPAK™ Logging screen 202 of FIG. 9 and selecting the Quick Consume function (by depressing the right mouse button). This activates a small window showing the scheduled, issued, consumed, scrapped, and returned numbers for the item highlighted and the user can enter the appropriate number. This function is particularly useful when the actual consumption varied very little from the scheduled consumption and the user is able to find the information more quickly in the nested bill of materials structure of the TRACEPAK™ Logging screen 202.

Creating Reports

As was described generally, the function of the software is to allow for the tracking of resource consumption during a procedure for the purposes of analysis. In general, such analysis could consist of cost recovery, historical usage tracking, inventory reduction, procedure standardization, etc. In particular, the use of unitized delivery systems in hospitals is growing in which nearly all supplies needed for a given procedure are packaged into one unit and ordered on a just in time basis. In this manner, the hospital can reduce its in-stock inventory and not have operating capital tied up in supply inventory. However, hospitals typically must maintain supplies which are either not available from the supplier of the unitized package, or vary from procedure to procedure due to doctor preferences, variations in procedures, or from simply not having the information available in a readily accessible form.

The RCL™ software of this Example, provides for analyzing the data input during the logging process, by generating a variety of reports. Referring now to FIG. 13, the Reports screen 286 is shown. The Reports screen 286 allows the user to select the procedure(s) to be analyzed by selecting a procedure from a window 288 showing all available procedures. The procedure(s) selected will be shown in window 290. With the procedure selection, the user may elect to add 292, remove 294 or remove all 296 procedures by selecting the appropriate button. Likewise, the user may select from a list of all doctors shown in window 298, with the selected doctor's name appearing in a window 360. Also like the procedure selection, the user may add 302, remove 304 or remove all 306 doctors available for inclusion in the report. For the output of the information, the user may select the information to be grouped according to a particular hierarchy, this function is shown in the Group by window 308. The user may also select the location where the report will be output in the Output window 310. Furthermore, the printer functions of Print Setup 312 and Print 314 may be selected by selecting the proper button. Finally, the Done function 316 may be selected to exit the Reports screen 286 when finished.

Referring now to the Report window 318, once all of the other information is selected by the user, the user may specify the type of report and the time range for which the report will be generated. Currently, with this Example, three types of report are available: a Volatility report (one page shown in FIG. 14), a Usage report (one page shown in FIG. 15) and a Procedure Variance report (one page shown in FIG. 16).

Referring to FIG. 14 the Volatility report 319 provides information regarding what the expected supply usage is (based upon the procedural template) and how actual usage compares to the expected usage. In the example of FIG. 14, the report is sorted by the doctors using a procedural pack for C-sections. In the Occurrences category 320, there are three columns, Exp 322, Var 324 and Pct 326. The Exp column 322 show the number of procedures in which a particular component of a procedural pack was scheduled to be used by the surgeon. The Var column 324 shows the number of times the usage of that component did not equal the amount scheduled to be used. The Pct column 326 shows the percentage of procedures where the actual usage varied from the scheduled usage. It should be noted, that not all items from the procedural template will appear in the Volatility report 319, the only items that appear are those items where a variance between scheduled usage and actual usage occurred. For Dr. Bernard in the example, there were 3 C-Sections performed during the report period (indicated by the 3 in the Exp column 322). In two of these C-Sections, the actual usage of the Irrigation Bulb Syringe 328, varied from the scheduled usage in two cases (indicated by the 2 in the Var column 324).

The next category in the Volatility report 319 is the Components category 330. This category has two columns, a Sch column 332 and a Use column 334. For parts where a variance has occurred, the Sch column 332 shows the total number of components expected to be used in the procedures performed by the given doctor (in the case of Dr. Bernard in the example, a total of 3 irrigation bulb syringes were scheduled to be used in the 3 C-Sections summarized in the Volatility report 319) while the Use column 334 shows the actual number of components used (in the case of Dr. Bernard in the example, only one bulb syringe was used in three procedures).

The next report category is the Under-Use category 336. In the Qty column 338, the reports shows the total quantity of under usage for the component for all procedures for a given doctor. In the Exp column 340, the number times under usage of the component was experienced is provided. In the % of Exp column 342, the percentage of cases in which a under usage occurred for a component is shown. In the Avg. Under column 344, the average under usage of the components, on a per procedure basis is provided. For example, in the case of the Dr. Bernard C-Section list, the total quantity of bulb syringe under usage is 2 (shown in the Qty column 338), the number of cases in which under usage occurred is 2 (shown in the Exp column 340), the percentage of total cases in which under usage occurred is 66% (shown in the % of Exp column 342) and the average under usage of this component is 1.00 (shown in the Avg. Under column 344; the average under is the Qty fig. divided by the Exp fig.). The same information is provided in the Over-Use category 346 and the explanation will not be repeated.

This Component Volatility Report 319 provides a supply manager with a quick review of the variation in actual usage of components versus scheduled usage. By utilizing this type of information, the manager may review component volatility to determine when additional items should be stocked in addition to the procedural packs ordered for a given procedure. Also, to the extent that the over-use or under-use of a component is consistent, the manager might wish to adjust the bill of materials for the given procedure to minimize waste of components (under use) or to add components to minimize additional inventory requirements (a consistent over-use situation). Also, to the extent that the bill of materials is adjusted, the corresponding procedural template would need to be adjusted as well.

Another type of report, the Component Usage Report 348, is shown in FIG. 15. Basically, the Component Usage Report 348 provides an actual component usage history, component by component, for a desired procedural template. The example of FIG. 15, show a component usage report for a procedural template for a C-Section and is sorted by doctor. The component usage report may reflect usage for a given time period, for all procedures, for all procedures for a given doctor or various combinations of the foregoing. This report is useful for looking at historical consumption for manufacturing purposes, ordering of raw materials, forecasting future orders, etc.

A final type of standard report generated by the software of the example is the Procedure Variance Report 256, shown in FIG. 16. This report is sorted by doctor and under the doctor's name shows all of the various types of procedures performed by the doctor (each procedure corresponding to a procedural template) along with costing information relevant to the historical usage information.

For example, for Dr. Bernard's C-Section historical procedure usage, a total of 3 C-Sections (shown in the Total Procedures column 352) were performed during the reporting period. The total cost of the supplies used in the three procedures was $390.25 (shown in the Total Cost column 354). The lowest cost of supplies for a procedure was $129.31 (shown in the Minimum column 356). The average cost for supplies for a procedure was $130.08 (shown in the Average column 358). The highest cost of supplies for a procedure was 185.75 (shown in the Maximum column 360). Finally, the standard cost deviation was $18.09 (shown in the Standard Deviation column 362). This information allows the hospital or other care-giver to track costs and compare costs from procedure to procedure, doctor to doctor or other relationships. This type of information would be useful for budget forecasting, cost analysis, etc.

It should be noted that while one pate from three standard reports were described with respect to the example, a variety of different reports could be generated by one skilled in the art. For example, since all of the information is provided into searchable fields and records, a variety of custom reports could be generated with simple database commands. Again, the key item is that the procedural template architecture provides a common framework for the collection, organization, entry and retrieval of data in a manner which maximizes its usefulness to the user.

Patient Information

The Patient Information screen 364 of the RCL™ software of the example is shown in FIG. 17. This function is activated by selecting the patient selection under the Maintenance menu 142 and allows for the entry of information concerning a particular patient. If desired, the relevant information about a given patient could be entered into the system and, when a procedure is being scheduled or logged as previously described, the patient record could be associated with the procedure record. Completion of this record allows for better tracking of costs for billing purposes, location of past patient histories for previous procedures, and a variety of other information. As is seen in the Patient Information screen 364, the user may toggle between different patient records by selecting the First function, the Previous function, the Next function or the Last function. Also, for record maintenance, the user may add a new patient record by selecting the Add function, may edit a patient record by selecting the proper record and selecting the Edit function, may delete a patient record by selecting the Delete function, may save the patient record by selecting the Save function, and may clear the present record by selecting the Clear function (clearing all of the fields of information)(these functions are the same database maintenance functions previously described).

The available information fields allow the storage of useful information about the patient and allow for the correlation of the patient record to other hospital information. For example the number entered into the Medical Record field 266 would typically correspond to the patient identification number used in the medical chart while the Account # field 268 would correspond to the billing number assigned to the patient. Thus, to the extent that separate information systems were used to track medical history and/or billing, the Patient Information function of RCL™ software allows for the cross-correlation of the separate information systems.

Employee Maintenance

The Employee Maintenance screen 370 allows the user of the RCL™ software of the example to input and/or edit information concerning employees who will be performing procedures in the healthcare institution. The Employee Maintenance screen 370 is selected from the drop down Maintenance menu 192 previously described. Potentially, all employees providing any service along the procedural pathway could be entered; however, typically the surgeons are entered at a minimum. Like other informational records described herein, the Employee Maintenance screen 370 has a number of informational fields which allow for the entering of information such as Name, Social Security Number 374, Employee Number, Department, Type, Address, City, State, Zip Code, Phone Numbers and, Beeper (or Pager) Number, and text Comments.

In addition, since the Employee Maintenance Screen 370 is used to call up a list of records, there are search functions provided as well. For example, the First function takes the user to the first record in the list, the Prev function takes the user to the immediately preceding record in the list, the Next function takes the user to the next record in the list and the Last function takes the user to the last record in the list. Also, for entering new information or editing information in the selected record, the Add function allows the user to add a new employee record, the Edit function allows the user to edit the current employee record, the Delete function allows the user to delete the current employee record and the Save function allows the user to save the current record. The Clear function clears the current record from the list. Once the user has finished with the Employee Maintenance screen 370 the OK 372 or Cancel 374 function is used to exit the Employee Maintenance screen 370.

Bundle Maintenance

Previously, the process of adding a pre-configured bundle was described with respect to the scheduling of a procedure in the RCL™ software. As was described, bundles can be added to a procedural template in order to customize a procedure for a given doctor or to include special components for a particular patient. In particular, some bundles, standard items of supplies used at a particular point in the clinical pathway, will be bundled as a standard item; other bundles, conditional bundles, will be built from the available parts (entered through the parts maintenance function) and will only be used with certain procedures (i.e., procedures performed by a particular doctor).

FIGS. 19 through 26 show the functions associated with building and maintaining supply bundles in the RCL™ software. Referring now to FIG. 19, the TracePak™ Management screen 135, is shown with the Operative Care Event 376 of the Perfusion TracePak™ 378 selected. Shown under the selected Operative Care Event 376 are supply bundles. The first, the OMI Supply Bundle For O.R. 386, is a standard supply bundle which is a part of the standard procedural template for the Perfusion TracePak™ 378. However, shown below the OMI Supply Bundle 380 are three conditional supply bundles 382, 384 and 386 (identified by an icon which is different from the standard supply bundle icon). With the Operative Care Event 376 selected, the available supply bundles for that care event are also shown in the right hand window 388, which also shows the part numbers 390, 392, 394 and 396 for those bundles.

Referring now to FIG. 20, with the Operative Care Event 376 highlighted by placing the cursor over that item, a menu 398 may be called by depressing the right mouse key (or other action defined in the software). In the example of FIG. 20, the Add function is selected which calls the sub-menu 400 shown. Also in the example of FIG. 20 the Bundle function is selected under the Add function which will allow the user to add a bundle to the list of conditional bundles.

Referring now to FIG. 21, after selecting the add bundle function previously, the user is presented with a Bundle screen 402. The user is prompted to enter a part number or name in the Part Number field 404, a description in the Description field 406 and may add additional comments in the comment field 408. After entering the desired information, the user may proceed with creation of the bundle by selecting the OK function 410 or may cancel the add bundle feature by selecting the Cancel function 412 and be returned to the TracePak™ Management screen 135 of FIG. 19.

Once the OK function 410 is selected, the new bundle 414 will appear in the TRACEPAK™ Management screen 135, as shown in FIG. 22. By highlighting the new bundle 414 and clicking the right mouse button (the standard "properties" function under Windows 95 and Windows NT) the properties menu 416 will appear for the selected bundle and will list choices for that bundle (since a bundle is selected in this case, as opposed to an operative care event was selected for the addition of a new bundle as was the case with reference to FIG. 20, there are more available choices for actions as indicated by the darker menu choices) as shown in FIG. 23. A new bundle was just created as described with Reference to FIG. 22, now, in order to add the desired parts to the new bundle, the choice selected under the properties menu 416 is Add, which shows the Add sub-menu 418 with the Bundle Components selection highlighted. By selecting the Bundle Components choice under the Add sub-menu 418, the Bundle Maintenance Screen 420 is accessed as shown in FIG. 24. The Bundle Maintenance Screen 420 identifies the bundle being maintained and shows the parts selected for the chosen bundle in the part window 422. If a new part is to be added, that number may be typed into the part number box 424. Alternatively, if the part number is not known, the user may search the parts database by selecting the Search function 426. Selecting this function will activate the Parts Maintenance feature which was previously described, which will allow the parts database to be searched for the purposes of determining which parts to add to the Bundle. Also, if the desired part is found, it can be added to the bundle by selecting the Add function 428, an undesired part may be removed from the bundle by selecting the Delete function 430, new information about the part may be retrieved by selecting the Update function 432 or additional comments about the parts or the bundle may be added by selecting the Comment function 434. Once the user is finished with the bundle, the Done function 436 may be selected, or if the user wants to exit without changing anything, the Cancel function 438 may be selected which will return the user to the TRACEPAK™ Management Screen 135.

Referring now to FIG. 25, once the new part has been added in the Bundle Maintenance screen, it will appear as an item under that Bundle in the tree view 146 of the TRACEPAK™ Management Screen 135. As is shown in FIG. 25, the Dr. Smith Perfusion bundle 440, now shows a new part 442 as being a component of that bundle.

Referring now to FIG. 26, the contents of any supply bundle may be seen by clicking on that bundle's icon. In FIG. 26, the OMI Supply Bundle For OR 444 has been highlighted in the tree view 146. This action serves to expand the bundle and show its components in the tree view 146 as well as show a more detailed listing of components in the list display 148. This feature allows the user to view components of procedures at varying levels of detail, depending on the information required.

Query Procedure

As with patients, employees, bundles and parts, the RCL™ software of the example allows for the maintenance of procedural templates and stored historical information of completed procedures. To perform procedure maintenance, the desired procedure, such as a Perfusion TracePak™ 446, shown in FIG. 27, is highlighted by selection with the cursor in the TracePak™ Management Screen 135. Once the desired procedure is highlighted (446), the user selects the Maintenance drop down menu 142 and selects the Query Procedure function 448 from that menu 142 as shown in FIG. 28.

Referring now to FIG. 29, selection of the Query Procedure function 448 will call the Procedure Maintenance screen 450 which will assist the user in finding the procedure history for which maintenance is to be performed. The user may use the date fields 452 and 454 to select the month and day of the procedure and may select the exact date using the calendar 456 provided. By completing the Date field 458 and checking the date box 460 the user may restrict the search to procedures performed on an exact date. If only a range of dates is known, the user may enter the beginning date in the start date field 462 and the ending date in the end date field 464 and check the appropriate start date 466 and end date 468 boxes. Alternatively, if only a start date is known or only an end date is known, the procedures may be searched with the single criterion. The Procedure Maintenance Screen 450 also allows the search to be narrowed by the type of procedure (in this example shown in the TracePak™ field 470, which provides the user with a selection of all of the procedural templates which have been configured for the particular hospital. Also, as shown in FIG. 30, the search can also be limited to specific surgeons by selection of the appropriate surgeon from the Surgeon field 472. The list of surgeons would be all of the surgeons which have been configured in the employee maintenance function described previously.

Once the appropriate search criteria have been entered, the user then executes the search for the procedure(s) by selecting the search function 474. If the criteria were entered improperly, or if another search is to be conducted, the user would select the Clear function 476 to empty all of the search criteria from the respective fields. If the procedure maintenance was completed, the user can end the session by selecting the End function 478.

Once the search has been executed, a Query Results screen 480 appears as shown in FIG. 31. This screen 480 shows a list of procedures meeting the search criteria. From this list, the user selects the desired procedure for maintenance, in the example, Perfusion procedure number 72 482, such as by pointing to a particular procedure and double clicking with the left mouse button. This action will call the Edit Procedure Information Screen 484 shown in FIG. 32. This screen 489 has fields 486, 488, 490, 492, 494, 496, and 498 for the procedure specific information which may be changed by the user. In the Procedural Codes field 494 the user may add a new code by selecting the Add Code 500 function or may remove a code by selecting the Remove Code 502 function. The user may select a new surgeon in the Surgeon field or may clear the current surgeon by selecting the Clear 504 function. Similarly, in the Manufacturer's Lot field 498, the user may clear the field by selecting the Clear 506 function or may enter a new lot number.

Also, the user may Delete 508 the procedure, Save 510 the edited procedure, may access the logging file (where component usage was stored) with the Log/Save 512 function, or Cancel 514 the editing by selecting the appropriate function button.

Database Organization

The structure, organization and relationships between objects for the database structure are outlined below in Tables I-XVI. These tables contain the tree structure of the database, the registration and other tables, the definition of objects and the schema.

                  TABLE I                                                          ______________________________________                                         Function: Designation of object types.                                         Column    Type       Description                                               ______________________________________                                         type.sub.-- serial                                                                       integer    Unique serial identification number.                      type.sub.-- class                                                                        char (64)  Object type description.                                  type.sub.-- ocxid                                                                        text       Object type system application.                           type.sub.-- class.sub.-- serial                                                          integer    Object type category identification                                            number.                                                   type.sub.-- serial                                                                       unique index                                                                              type.sub.-- serial                                        ______________________________________                                    

                  TABLE II                                                         ______________________________________                                         Object Category Master File                                                    Table: sys.sub.-- class                                                        Function: Designation of object type categories.                               Column    Type       Description                                               ______________________________________                                         class.sub.-- serial                                                                      integer    Unique serial identification number.                      class.sub.-- description                                                                 char (30)  Object type category description.                         class.sub.-- serial                                                                      unique index                                                                              class.sub.-- serial                                       ______________________________________                                    

                  TABLE III                                                        ______________________________________                                         Database Table Master File                                                     Table: sys.sub.-- fi1e                                                         Function: Designation of object database tables.                               Column   Type       Description                                                ______________________________________                                         file.sub.-- serial                                                                      serial     Unique serial identification number.                       file.sub.-- table                                                                       char (30)  SQL Server database table name.                            file.sub.-- index                                                                       char (30)  SQL Server database index name.                            file.sub.-- identity                                                                    integer    Maximum key index serial number.                           file.sub.-- serial                                                                      unique index                                                                              file.sub.-- serial                                         file.sub.-- table                                                                       unique index                                                                              file.sub.-- table                                          ______________________________________                                    

                  TABLE IV                                                         ______________________________________                                         Object Tree Master File                                                        Table: sys.sub.-- tree                                                         Function: Designation of resource object hierarchy.                            Column     Type      Description                                               ______________________________________                                         tree.sub.-- serial                                                                        integer   Unique serial identification number.                      tree.sub.-- handle                                                                        integer   Serial identification number of case.                     tree.sub.-- parent                                                                        integer   Serial identification number of                                                container.                                                tree.sub.-- object                                                                        integer   Serial identification number of                                                resource object.                                          tree.sub.-- number                                                                        float     Resource object sequence number.                          tree.sub.-- origin                                                                        char (1)  Resource object data entry origin:                                             (I)nternal/(E)xternal.                                    tree.sub.-- schedule                                                                      float     Resource object quantity scheduled.                       tree.sub.-- issue                                                                         float     Resource object quantity issued.                          tree.sub.-- consume                                                                       float     Resource object quantity consumed.                        tree.sub.-- scrap                                                                         float     Resource object quantity scrapped.                        tree.sub.-- return                                                                        float     Resource object quantity returned.                        tree.sub.-- created.sub.-- by                                                             char (20) System user name record created by.                       tree.sub.-- modified.sub.-- by                                                            char (20) System user name record modified                                               by.                                                       tree.sub.-- created.sub.-- date                                                           datetime  Date record created.                                      tree.sub.-- modified.sub.-- date                                                          datetime  Date record modified.                                     tree.sub.-- serial                                                                        unique index                                                                             tree.sub.-- serial                                        tree.sub.-- unique.sub.-- key                                                             unique index                                                                             tree.sub.-- handle, tree.sub.-- parent,                                        tree.sub.-- object, tree.sub.-- number                    ______________________________________                                    

                  TABLE V                                                          ______________________________________                                         Object Tree Resource Cost File                                                 Table: sys.sub.-- cost                                                         Function: Designation of resource object cost.                                 Column     Type      Description                                               ______________________________________                                         cost.sub.-- serial                                                                        integer   Unique serial identification number.                      cost.sub.-- object                                                                        integer   Serial identification of resource                                              object.                                                   cost.sub.-- active.sub.-- date                                                            datetime  Resource object active date.                              cost.sub.-- inactive.sub.-- date                                                          datetime  Resource object inactive date.                            cost.sub.-- price                                                                         float     Resource object cost.                                     cost.sub.-- serial                                                                        unique index                                                                             cost.sub.-- serial                                        ______________________________________                                    

                  TABLE VI                                                         ______________________________________                                         Object Attribute Master File                                                   Table: att.sub.-- master                                                       Function: Designation of object attributes.                                    Column    Type      Description                                                ______________________________________                                         attr.sub.-- serial                                                                       integer   Unique serial identification number.                       attr.sub.-- mnemonic                                                                     char (10) Attribute mnemonic.                                        attr.sub.-- description                                                                  char (50) Attribute description.                                     attr.sub.-- type.sub.-- serial                                                           integer   Serial identification number of attribute                                      type.                                                      attr.sub.-- serial                                                                       unique index                                                                             attr.sub.-- serial                                         ______________________________________                                    

                  TABLE VII                                                        ______________________________________                                         Object Attribute Type Master File                                              Table att.sub.-- type                                                          Function: Designation of object attribute types.                               Column    Type      Description                                                ______________________________________                                         attp.sub.-- serial                                                                       integer   Unique serial identification number.                       attp.sub.-- description                                                                  char (30) Attribute description.                                     attp.sub.-- serial                                                                       unique index                                                                             attp.sub.-- serial                                         ______________________________________                                    

                  TABLE VIII                                                       ______________________________________                                         Object Attribute Cross Reference File                                          Table: sys.sub.-- xref                                                         Function: Designation of object attribute correlation.                         Column    Type      Description                                                ______________________________________                                         xref.sub.-- node.sub.-- serial                                                           integer   Unique serial identification number.                       xref.sub.-- attr.sub.-- serial                                                           integer   Serial identification of resource                                              attribute.                                                 xref.sub.-- node.sub.-- serial                                                           unique index                                                                             xref.sub.-- node.sub.-- serial                             ______________________________________                                    

                  TABLE IX                                                         ______________________________________                                         Object Memo Text File                                                          Table: sys.sub.-- text                                                         Function: Designation of resource object documentation.                        Column   Type      Description                                                 ______________________________________                                         text.sub.-- serial                                                                      integer   Unique serial identification number.                        text.sub.-- id                                                                          integer   Serial identification of resource object.                   text.sub.-- type                                                                        char (1)  Object type identification: (N) sys.sub.-- node/                               (T) sys.sub.-- tree                                         text.sub.-- comment                                                                     text      Object text.                                                text.sub.-- serial                                                                      unique index                                                                             text.sub.-- serial                                          ______________________________________                                    

                  TABLE X                                                          ______________________________________                                         Object Resource Data File                                                      Table: sys.sub.-- resource                                                     Function: Designation of resource object data.                                 Column    Type      Description                                                ______________________________________                                         resc.sub.-- node.sub.-- serial                                                           integer   Unique serial identification number.                       resc.sub.-- cost.sub.-- gl                                                               float     Resource object gl cost.                                   resc.sub.-- charge.sub.-- gl                                                             float     Resource object gl charge.                                 resc.sub.-- cost                                                                         float     Resource object cost.                                      resc.sub.-- charge                                                                       float     Resource object charge.                                    resc.sub.-- uoi                                                                          char (2)  Resource object unit of issue.                             resc.sub.-- capacity                                                                     float     Resource object capacity.                                  resc.sub.-- sch.sub.-- type                                                              char (1)  Resource object scheduled type.                            resc.sub.-- pln.sub.-- type                                                              char (1)  Resource object plan type.                                 resc.sub.-- lead.sub.-- time                                                             datetime  Resource object lead time.                                 resc.sub.-- node.sub.-- serial                                                           unique index                                                                             Resc.sub.-- node.sub.-- serial                             ______________________________________                                    

                  TABLE XI                                                         ______________________________________                                         Object Resource Times File                                                     Table: sys.sub.-- time                                                         Function: Designation of resource object times.                                Column     Type      Description                                               ______________________________________                                         time.sub.-- tree.sub.-- serial                                                            integer   Unique serial identification number.                      time.sub.-- sch.sub.-- start                                                              datetime  Resource scheduled start time.                            time.sub.-- sch.sub.-- stop                                                               datetime  Resource scheduled stop time.                             time.sub.-- plan.sub.-- start                                                             datetime  Resource planned start time.                              time.sub.-- plan.sub.-- stop                                                              datetime  Resource planned stop time.                               time.sub.-- actual.sub.-- start                                                           datetime  Resource actual start time.                               time.sub.-- actual.sub.-- top                                                             datetime  Resource actual stop time.                                time.sub.-- offset                                                                        datetime  Resource offset time.                                     time.sub.-- duration                                                                      datetime  Resource duration time.                                   time.sub.-- tree.sub.-- serial                                                            unique index                                                                             time.sub.-- tree.sub.-- serial                            ______________________________________                                    

                                      TABLE XII                                    __________________________________________________________________________     sys.sub.-- tree                                                                       sys.sub.-- node                                                                        sys.sub.-- xref                                                                        att.sub.-- master                                                                      att.sub.-- type                                 __________________________________________________________________________     tree.sub.-- serial                                                             tree.sub.-- handle                                                             tree.sub.-- parent                                                             tree.sub.-- object                                                                    node.sub.-- serial                                                                     xref.sub.-- node.sub.-- serial                                  tree.sub.-- number                                                                    node.sub.-- sys.sub.-- type                                                            xref.sub.-- attr.sub.-- serial                                                         attr.sub.-- serial                                      tree.sub.-- origin                                                                    node.sub.-- sys.sub.-- file                                                                    attr.sub.-- mnemonic                                    tree.sub.-- schedule                                                                  node.sub.-- key attr.sub.-- description                                 tree.sub.-- issue                                                                     node.sub.-- mnemonic                                                                           attr.sub.-- attp.sub.-- serial                                                         attp.sub.-- serial                              tree.sub.-- consume                                                                   node.sub.-- description attp.sub.-- mnemonic                            tree.sub.-- scrap              attp.sub.-- description                         tree.sub.-- return                                                             __________________________________________________________________________

                  TABLE XIII                                                       ______________________________________                                         Template Configuration                                                         ______________________________________                                         90-1001       CardioVascular TracePak                                           91-ANES1001  CV-Anesthesia Care Event                                           92-DER1001ANES                                                                             CV-Anesthesia DeRoyal Supply Bundle                                 50-1001    CV-Surgical Pack                                                     5-1001    Catheter, Foley Temperature Probe                                  92-DLR1001ANES                                                                             CV-Anesthesia Distributor Supply Bundle                            92-HOS1001ANES                                                                             CV-Anesthesia Hospital Supply Bundle                              91-OPER1001  CV-Operative Care Event                                            92-DER1001OPER                                                                             CV-Operative DeRoyal Supply Bundle                                  50-1001    CV-Surgical Pack                                                     5-1001    Foley Temperature Probe Catheter                                   92-DLR1001OPER                                                                             CV-Operative Distributor Supply Bundle                             92-HOS1001OPER                                                                             CV-Operative Hospital Supply Bundle                              ______________________________________                                    

                  TABLE XIV                                                        ______________________________________                                         Sys.sub.-- node Registry                                                       node.sub.-- serial                                                                     node.sub.-- key                                                                         node.sub.-- mnemonic                                                                         node.sub.-- description                         ______________________________________                                         10      1        90-1001       CardioVascular Trace-                                                          Pak                                             20      2        91-ANES1001   CV-Anesthesia Care                                                             Event                                           30      3        91-OPER1001   CV-Operative Care                                                              Event                                           40      4        92-DER1001ANES                                                                               CV-Anesthesia                                                                  DeRoyal Supply                                                                 Bundle                                          50      5        92-DLR1001ANES                                                                               CV-Anesthesia                                                                  Distributor Supply                                                             Bundle                                          60      6        92-HOS1001ANES                                                                               CV-Anesthesia                                                                  Hospital Supply                                                                Bundle                                          70      7        92-DER1001OPER                                                                               CV-Operative                                                                   DeRoyal Supply                                                                 Bundle                                          80      8        92-DLR1001OPER                                                                               CV-Operative                                                                   Distributor Supply                                                             Bundle                                          90      9        92-HOS1001OPER                                                                               CV-Operative                                                                   Hospital Supply                                                                Bundle                                          100     10       50-1001       CV-Surgical Pack                                110     11       5-1001        Foley Temperature                                                              Probe Catheter                                  120     12       1001          Surgical Case                                                                  Identification Number                           ______________________________________                                    

                  TABLE XV                                                         ______________________________________                                         Sys.sub.-- tree Card                                                           tree.sub.-- serial                                                                     tree.sub.-- handle                                                                       tree.sub.-- parent                                                                       tree.sub.-- object                                                                     tree.sub.-- number                         ______________________________________                                         1001    0         CARD      10      1                                          1002    0         10        20      1                                          1003    0         20        40      1                                          1004    0         40        100     1                                          1005    0         100       110     1                                          1006    0         20        50      1                                          1007    0         20        60      1                                          1008    0         10        30      1                                          1009    0         30        70      1                                          1010    0         70        100     1                                          1011    0         100       110     1                                          1012    0         30        80      1                                          1013    0         30        90      1                                          ______________________________________                                    

                  TABLE XVI                                                        ______________________________________                                         Sys.sub.-- tree Case                                                           tree.sub.-- serial                                                                     tree.sub.-- handle                                                                       tree.sub.-- parent                                                                       tree.sub.-- object                                                                     tree.sub.-- number                         ______________________________________                                         2001    120       CASE      120     1                                          2002    120       2001      20      1                                          2003    120       2002      40      1                                          2004    120       2003      100     1                                          2005    120       2004      110     1                                          2006    120       2002      50      1                                          2007    120       2002      60      1                                          2008    120       2001      30      1                                          2009    120       2008      70      1                                          2010    120       2009      100     1                                          2011    120       2010      110     1                                          2012    120       2008      80      1                                          2013    120       2008      90      1                                          ______________________________________                                    

    ______________________________________                                         Selection Criteria                                                             ______________________________________                                         if (tree.sub.-- handle)                                                        select from sys.sub.-- tree where tree.sub.-- object = node.sub.-- serial      and                                                                            node.sub.-- sys.sub.-- type = type.sub.-- serial                                                and    tree.sub.-- parent = ?                                 and    tree.sub.-- handle = ?                                                  else                                                                           select from sys.sub.-- tree where tree.sub.-- object = node.sub.-- serial      and                                                                            node.sub.-- sys.sub.-- type = type.sub.-- serial                                                 and    tree.sub.-- parent = ?                                and    (tree.sub.-- handle = ? or tree.sub.-- handle = tree.sub.--             ______________________________________                                                object)                                                            

SYS₋₋ NODE REGISTRATION

Sys₋₋ node is the main resource master table. Every resource that could be used in a pathway will be registered once and only once in sys₋₋ node (labor, supplies, equipment). All organizational nodes will also be registered in sys₋₋ node as well (care events, templates, resource bundles). Tree₋₋ object is the main field in sys₋₋ tree . This field always corresponds with a sys₋₋ node record. The tree₋₋ parent record will correspond with a sys₋₋ node record if we are in a Template Pathway, however it will correspond with a tree location (tree₋₋ serial) if we are in a specific case. To find out information about a node the sys₋₋ node table links with the sys₋₋ type table that has information about the type and where the master file data resides.

SYS₋₋ TREE

Sys₋₋ tree is the database table that holds the structure of the Bill of Resources. The tree₋₋ number fields allows for sequencing of resources in the pathway. Tree₋₋ serial is the serial number of the record, Tree₋₋ handle tells us if we are in a specific case or in the Templates, Tree₋₋ parent is either the sys₋₋ node registration number of the containing object or the location to this record in sys₋₋ tree, and tree₋₋ object is the object in question always.

REUSABLE COMPONENTS

It is a recursive table that enables reusable components. For example if a tray "50-1234" is used in more than one procedure, the tray has unlimited reusability. One record can be added to each procedure that uses the Tray. The record would be where the tree₋₋ parent is equal to the container of the tray and the tree₋₋ object is the tray. From this point down all references would be looking at literally the same records, therefore if a change was made inside the tray it would be reflected in all cases that used the tray without any behind the scenes processing to allow this to happen.

UNIQUE COMPONENTS

In order to enable logging specific cases there needs to be the ability to make a change in a case that would not be reflected in all other references to a given tray. To accommodate this we have a field called tree₋₋ handle. The tree₋₋ handle is always ZERO when dealing with a BOR, however it is always non-zero when dealing with a specific case. This gives us a unique copy of the entire pathway so if we add, delete, or modify a line it will only be reflected in this group of records with a common handle. The start of a Case is where the tree₋₋ handle is equal to the tree₋₋ object. Also to accommodate proper traversing of the tree we then use the serial number of sys₋₋ tree for the tree₋₋ parent field as opposed to the sys₋₋ node registration number as we do in a template. This is needed in the case of the same tray being used in two different locations in the same Case. We may log different data for the same tray in the anesthesia care event than in the operative care event.

This system allows us to use one table to accommodate both template configuration and case logging. Therefore we can use the same programmatic functions to traverse and log data for both scenarios.

The foregoing description of the preferred embodiments, and in particular the Example, are for the purposes of illustration and not limitation. The basic functions and methods set out in the following claims could be implemented in a variety of different ways using a variety of different techniques. For example, although use of computer technology is the preferred manner for implementing the invention, it could be implemented in a variety of other ways, including manually. Also, while the Example describes a particular software structure which implements the invention, the invention could be implemented using different types of hardware, operating systems, programming languages, database programs, etc. by one of ordinary skill in the art. Throughout the claims, the terms supply and/or resource are used to refer to items "used" during a medical procedure; it is within the scope of the present invention that the term supply and the term resource may be used interchangeably to refer to consumable medical supplies, reusable medical supplies, disposable medical supplies, disposable or reusable items of equipment, labor resources, or any other item, resource, device, etc. utilized in the provision of medical care can be included within the definition of "supply" or "resource" as used herein and in the following claims. Such numerous modifications, additions, deletions, substitutions, etc., may be made by one of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope of the invention set forth in the following claims. 

We claim:
 1. A computer-implemented method for tracking medical supply usage on a procedural level in a clinical setting comprising the steps of:creating provider-specific procedural templates, each comprising a list of supplies predetermined to be preferred by a particular healthcare provider for use during a given medical procedure; creating a recordation form for the given procedure based upon at least one of said provider-specific procedural templates for the given procedure, said recordation form including at least a partial listing of the supplies predetermined to be preferred by a particular healthcare provider for use during the given procedure based upon the at least one provider-specific procedural template, said recordation form including a scheduled amount of each of the supplies included in the procedural template to be used during the given medical procedure; recording on said recordation form actual usage information reflecting the actual usage of supplies during the given procedure, said recording comprising the steps of:recording an issued amount of each of the supplies included in the procedural template, where the issued amount is an amount issued for use in the medical procedure; recording a consumed amount of each of the supplies included in the procedural template, where the consumed amount is an amount actually consumed during the medical procedure; recording a returned amount of each of the supplies included in the procedural template, where the returned amount is an amount returned to storage after the medical procedure; recording a scrapped amount of each of the supplies included in the procedural template, where the scrapped amount is an amount disposed of but not consumed during the medical procedure nor returned to storage; storing said provider-specific procedural templates and actual usage information in a retrievable manner for the purposes of analysis analyzing said actual usage information from the given procedure and the at least one of said provider-specific procedural templates to determine supply request and actual usage patterns on a procedural level over a given time period for the particular healthcare provider by comparing the issued, consumed, returned, and scrapped amounts; and modifying said provider-specific procedural templates to more fully conform to the actual usage patterns based on said analyzing.
 2. The method of claim 1 further wherein said step of creating provider-specific procedural templates further comprises the steps of:expressing a medical procedure as a series of care events; associating the supplies used during the given medical procedure with the care events in which the supplies are used; and creating lists of associated supply bundles for each expressed care event.
 3. The method of claim 2 in which the step of expressing a medical procedure as a series of care events further comprises:expressing the given medical procedure in terms of a clinical pathway; identifying discrete elements of said clinical pathway which correspond to separate occurrences requiring interaction between a patient and a health care provider; and grouping said discrete elements together according to shared characteristics, said grouped discrete elements constituting a given care event.
 4. The method of claim 1 in which the step of creating a recordation form further comprises creating an electronic recordation form for receiving and storing information electronically.
 5. The method of claim 1 in which the step of creating a recordation form comprises creating a paper form containing a listing of the at least partial lisiting of supplies.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of storing said provider-specific procedural template and the actual usage information in a retrievable manner includes storing said provider-specific procedural template and the actual usage information in a searchable and sortable database.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of storing said provider-specific procedural template and the actual usage information in a retrievable manner includes storing said provider-specific procedural template and the actual usage information in a client/server database.
 8. A The method of claim 1 further comprising the following steps:repeating the steps of creating a recordation form for the given procedure, recording the actual usage information on the recordation form for the given procedure and storing the actual usage information for a plurality of given procedures to create a historical database of supply usage for the given procedures corresponding to said provider-specific procedural template; sorting the historical database according to selected criteria to compare the actual usage information to the list of supplies set out in the provider-specific procedural template; and generating reports displaying selected information resulting from the sorted historical database, and thereby providing historical actual usage information.
 9. The method of claim 8 comprising the additional step of refining the list of supplies set out in the provider-specific procedural template to more accurately reflect the historical actual usage information provided from said step of generating reports.
 10. The method of claim 9 comprising the additional step of ordering the supplies for the given procedure based upon the refined procedural template list of supplies.
 11. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of creating provider-specific procedural templates further comprises the following steps:creating a plurality of supply records containing at least identifying information for an item of supply, cost information about the item of supply, and a description of the item of supply, and using said supply records to incorporate information into said provider-specific procedural templates containing at least a partial listing of the supplies predetermined to be preferred by the particular healthcare provider for use during a given procedure.
 12. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of creating provider-specific procedural templates further comprises the following steps:creating a plurality of employee records containing at least employee identifying information and type of employee information, and using said employee records to incorporate information into said provider-specific procedural templates reflecting employee participation in the procedure.
 13. A computer-implemented process for the management of information relating to the consumption of health care resources in a clinical environment comprising the steps of:generating a machine readable and displayable provider-specific template of health care resources predetermined to be preferred by a particular healthcare provider for use during a given health care procedure; storing said provider-specific template in a machine readable and displayable database; outputting a recordation form in a human perceivable format based upon said machine readable and displayable provider-specific template, said recordation form comprising at least a partial listing of health care resources predetermined to be preferred by a particular healthcare provider for use during the given health care procedure; inputting actual usage information concerning the actual usage of health care resources associated with the given procedure, said inputting including the steps of:inputting an issued amount of each of the resources included in the template, where the issued amount is an amount issued for use in the procedure; inputting a consumed amount of each of the resources included in the template, where the consumed amount is an amount actually consumed during the procedure; inputting a returned amount of each of the resources included in the template, where the returned amount is an amount returned to storage after the procedure; inputting a scrapped amount of each of the resources included in the template, where the scrapped amount is an amount disposed of but not consumed during the procedure nor returned to storage; storing said actual usage information in a machine readable and displayable database; analyzing said actual usage information and said provider-specific template to determine deviations between expected resource consumption and actual resource consumption for the particular healthcare provider during the given health care procedure, said analyzing including comparing the issued, consumed, returned, and scrapped amounts of the resources; and modifying said provider-specific template to more fully conform to the actual usage of health care resources by the particular health care provider during the given health care procedure based on said analyzing.
 14. The method of claim 13 comprising the following additional steps:creating a plurality of machine readable parts records, each of the parts records corresponding to an item of supply which may be used in the health care procedure, each of said parts records including, at least, part identifying information, and part cost information; creating a plurality of machine readable employee records, each of the employee records corresponding to an employee who might participate in the health care procedure, each of said employee records including at least employee identifying information and employee duty information; and using said parts records and said employee records when performing the step of generating said machine readable and displayable provider-specific templates of health care resources.
 15. The method of claim 13 further comprising the following steps:repeating the steps of inputting and storing the actual usage information for a plurality of performed health care procedures; generating stored health care procedure records corresponding to the performed health care procedures; and storing the actual usage information for the performed health care procedures based on the stored procedure records, said machine readable and displayable database organized so as to be searchable and sortable.
 16. The method of claim 15 wherein the modifying step is based upon the actual usage information stored in said health care procedure records.
 17. The method of claim 15 wherein said analyzing step further comprises the following steps:comparing anticipated resource usage information to the actual usage information stored in said procedure records; and identifying potential component standardization opportunities across the health care procedures performed by the particular health care providers.
 18. The method of claim 15 wherein said health care procedure records include cost information and further comprising the step of extracting historical cost information for at least one of the health care procedures from said health care procedure records. 